Ponomariov draws first blood in Saint Louis

5/18/2011 – From May 17-25 there is an interesting match taking place at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis: top US GM Hikaru Nakamura plays former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov in six regular and four rapid games. The event has unprecedented live and archived video coverage – hours and hours of it. In their first game Ponomariov was forced to mate with bishop and knight.

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The first-ever international match at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center
of Saint Louis, May 17-25, began at 3:30 p.m. CDT Tuesday. The marquis match-up
features GM Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine against GM Hikaru Nakamura of Saint
Louis. The Chess Club’s Resident GM Ben Finegold is also taking on 16-year-old
GM Ray Robson, of Florida. Each match consists of six games played with a classical
time control and four rapid games.

After the drawing of the colors (determined by colored pens in a wooden box),
the four grandmasters answered questions at a "virtual press conference"
which fielded online questions from around the world. Nakamura revealed that
in the past he had played more on the Internet than classical chess. He said
good things happen when a person studies “instead of playing stupid blitz
games.” Players would not hold back on any “novelties” during
match play, and with research and computer engines, a player has to use a novelty
when given the chance. Ponomariov said he would play his normal openings “and
not hold back.”

Robson pointed out he did not have much time to prepare for Finegold, as the
teen was a late replacement last week for legendary GM Viktor Korchnoi. Robson
also said he has not often played under a match setup and said he remembered
playing Finegold only once. Showing the wit for which he is known, Finegold
pointed out the ages of the other three people at the table did not add up to
that of Korchnoi, his original opponent.

Here is video of the press conference (fifty minutes!)

Ponomariov, Robson Score Round-One Victories

By Ken West

Grandmaster Ruslan Ponomariov uncorked Nf3 on the fifth move against Grandmaster
Hikaru Nakamura’s King’s Indian Defense and went on to win the first
game of their international match Tuesday at the Saint Louis Chess Club and
Scholastic Center. “This is what happens when you take three and a half
months off classical chess,” Nakamura said during post-game comments with
International Master John Donaldson and Women’s Grandmaster Jen Shahade.

Nakamura said he knew he would “get something tactical” from Ponomariov,
who played 13.g4. Donaldson said the young Ukrainian also usually plays 5.f3,
the Saemisch variation against the King’s Indian. Nakamura said his Nf6
on move 21 was a major mistake. “Just about everything wins here for white,”
he said. Ponomariov said his move 49.Bd5 was a mistake, saying he is still fighting
jet lag. Nakamura said he had technical drawing chances in the end game if he
could have exchanged his dark-squared bishop for Ponomariov’s knight.
Nakamura resigned after Ponomariov’s 93rd move as the young Ukrainian
was weaving the knight/bishop mate.

In the other game, Grandmaster Ray Robson won on the black side against Grandmaster
Ben Finegold, the club’s resident GM, who played 2.c3, the Alapin, or
closed Sicilian. “At time control, I thought maybe it’s a draw,”
Finegold said. However, after 42.d5, he said he was losing. Robson said he didn’t
look at any lines against the closed Sicilian “and not even e4 a lot.”
The young grandmaster said he thought he was winning after 43. Bc5.

...and since it is clear that mate will follow in six more moves Nakamura resigned.
1-0.

You can watch extensive commentary of the round in the player on the tournament
page – hours and hours of archived video. Live commentary by IM John
Donaldson and WGM Jennifer Shahade for the next rounds can be found here.
Rounds and commentary are open to club members, and memberships start at just
$5/month for students or $12/month for adults.

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

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12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

The Exchange Variation (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3) is a simple and easy to learn answer to the Caro-Kann. By clarifying the central tension White gives himself a clear plan of attack using the half open e-file and the e5 square. This is far from easy for Black to meet as Bobby Fischer, Jan Timman, Walter Browne and other leading Grandmasters have demonstrated in their games. Black too has his resources but he needs to know what he's doing. On this DVD you will find a clear explanation of the strategy for both sides as well as answers to popular treatments such as 4...Nc6 5.c3 Qc7. Whilst the main focus is on the White side of this opening you will also find ways for Black to defend.